Button Duty
by peut-etre-poulet
Summary: Spoilers: ORIENTATION - CC; Charlie and Claire spend some time in the hatch.


**Title::..**Button Duty

**Spoilers::..**_Orientation_

**Rating::..**G

**Genre::..**Fluff

**Characters::..**Charlie and Claire

**Author's Note::..** I was watching _Lost_, season two and I realized how much (at the time) I hated the hatch, the storyline really bugged me because it took so much attention away from the beach gang. So I considered if this storyline had happened I might like the hatch a little more, anything can be improved by CC. They never spent any time together in the hatch and never talked after what happened in _Homecoming_, so I thought I would explore this alternative

**Summary::..** Charlie and Claire spend some time in the hatch.

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><p>Charlie couldn't believe it. He had been suckered in to button duty. If it had been anyone but Claire he could have resisted. But she had a power over him. And he was beginning to think she was aware of this power. If not for her he wouldn't be in this prison.<p>

He had been so curious about this place. Now that he was in here he wanted to leave. It was boring. He didn't know if he had claustrophobia or not, but he felt as if he needed to be out of here, he needed to be in the fresh air again. Being in here was like being in a cage. It may have been a little overdramatic but he felt as if he had forgotten how the sky looked.

'Something different, it might not be so bad and if we hate it we'll never volunteer again', Claire had said, 'how bad could it be?' Very bad. This was even worse than the day he had sold copiers. The records down here sucked. It was so dull. He was about one minute from climbing the walls.

He groaned, why was time moving by so slowly? He rocked back-and-forth before going over and throwing himself down on to the couch. He was so bored. At least on the beach there were things to look at. All there was to look at was the painting in the entry hall. Charlie was sure Bubbles the chimp could paint better than the loony who had been down here.

Claire was looking at the book collection, until he groaned again, then she cast a dark look at him over her shoulder. "If you groan one more time I'm gonna throw you out, you're driving me crazy."

"I'll do anything to get out of here." He stated, getting up. "So…" He let out the loudest sigh he could possibly manage.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Sit back down." He did so without having to be told twice. "It's not that bad. All you have to do is find something to pass the time."

He scoffed. "Yeah, sure, I'll go play Tetris on the computer."

"Why don't you read a book?" She suggested, turning back to the bookshelf. She pulled one out, showing it to him. "What about this one?"

"Stephen King?" He asked in disgust. "He's such a chump."

She let out a horrified gasp before holding the book to her breast. "I don't think we can be friends anymore."

He was slightly surprised. Was that all he was to her, a friend? He always thought of them as more than that. He had certainly never felt this way about any of his other friends. He had never spent hours staring longingly at his friends, or spent days admiring their hair. He didn't know how it was for her back home, but his friendships were nothing like this.

"This book got me through high school." She stated. "I wished I was Carrie, I would have taken her psycho mum over my own any day."

He shook his head. "I couldn't watch that movie. Like I started to watch it…"

"Oh, so you saw the naked shower scene, did you?" She asked.

He continued as if he hadn't heard her. "…but as soon as that period blood hit the floor I knew this wasn't the movie for me."

"You are such a wuss." She teased, replacing the book.

She strolled out of the room, hands in her pockets. It seemed a little odd seeing her without Aaron in her arms. His ears were still pricked up to hear Aaron's cries, waiting for it.

But he could relax knowing Aaron was with his Aunt Kate for the hour. The only noise he had to listen for was the button alarm. He almost felt as if they had nothing to talk about without Aaron around. Had they spent any time together without the baby before now? He couldn't remember.

He was sure if they had something to talk about time would move by at a more usual rate. But the only thing he could think about was how boring this hatch was. Seriously, not even a single Beatles record, what was wrong with these people?

She came back into the room, her teeth closed around her bottom lip. "You know Charlie, I've been thinking about something for a while…"

Judging by the look on her face this wasn't good news. She was so serious, it worried him. "Yeah?"

She opened her mouth but instead of hearing her voice he heard the first alarm. The numbers needed to be entered.

Usually he would be relieved to avoid a serious conversation. He would take it as a blessing. But with nothing to do it had his attention. He was curious about it.

He had to follow her into the control room. "Thinking about what?"

She appeared to not hear him. "Do we know what pushing this button does? I mean, I know Locke made us watch that movie but it didn't really explain anything."

"Yeah." He agreed to keep her happy before quickly moving on. "Thinking about what?"

"Hmm?" She asked.

"Before, you said you had been thinking about something for a while." He prompted.

"Oh yeah." She said, looking away from him as she continued. "I was thinking about how you must love me a lot."

Now he really wanted to get away from her. Why hadn't he let it be? He had to open his big mouth, didn't he? His throat had closed up; it was suddenly very hot in here. "What?"

"We never talked about how you shot Ethan." She stated.

He didn't want to talk about this. But he supposed if he could talk about it with anyone it was her. "Okay."

"Well I've never killed anyone, or even come close." She admitted. "I think that if you were willing to kill for someone you would have to be pretty serious about them." She finally looked up at him.

He felt like a deer caught in headlights. For so long he had tried to keep his feelings for her secret, to tone them down. He hadn't wanted to come on too strongly and scare her off. But it seemed as if she had known all along.

"Yeah, well I knew Jack and the others wouldn't do anything to him." He said the first thing to come to mind. "And he deserved to die, after what he did to you, after what he did to me, after what he did to all of us…he deserved to die."

She nodded. "Yeah." It didn't seem as if that was the answer she had wanted.

"But, you know, especially after what he did to you. I didn't think I could live with myself if I didn't take care of it." He explained.

She smiled now, shyly. "You can't help feeling flattered when a guy kills for you."

"You didn't seem very flattered when I did it." He stated.

If they were anywhere but here he could easily walk away from having this conversation. If he had known she wanted to talk about Ethan he wouldn't have asked. He didn't know what she wanted him to say. All women were confusing but Claire had to get a special mention.

Of all the things they could talk about why this? He didn't want to think about Ethan. So his mind went to the Virgin Mary statues and his fingers began to itch. He got up and started walking out of the control room. He was never volunteering for button duty again, no matter what Claire said to him.

He had sat back down on the lounge when Claire came into the room. He looked away from her, hoping she would get the hint. She didn't say anything first, she sat down beside him on the couch. He bit into his bottom lip, using all of his force to keep his big mouth shut this time.

"I reacted pretty badly then, huh?" She said.

"Yeah." He agreed, mentally hitting himself, so much for staying quiet.

"Can you blame me?" She asked. "I couldn't remember who you were; I certainly didn't remember Ethan or what he had done to me. I was confused and here you were, this stranger, shooting another stranger. It was like a storyline from a soap."

He couldn't work out whether she was mocking him or not. Her tone wasn't harsh but what she was saying certainly sounded like an insult. "Is this an apology?"

"Yeah." She said unsurely, as if she didn't know if she actually wanted to be saying these words. "I didn't know then what I know now and I'm sorry for making you feel like you did something wrong."

He shrugged a shoulder. "It's not like you could help it or anything."

She put her hand on his arm causing him to look at her. When he saw her eyes he instantly knew how serious she was. "Charlie, I'm sorry."

He couldn't figure out what she was so serious about. "Okay, don't worry about it."

She let out an irritated sigh; it seemed she was getting frustrated. She sat forward on the couch, her body moving closer to his. "I've been remembering more and more lately. And yeah, this was hard for me but it must've been sucky for you too. So…" She leant in and pressed her lips to his. Before he could move his lips against hers and get to actually enjoy the kiss she had removed herself. While his mind was muddled up and he couldn't understand what had happened, she remained completely on track. "…I'm sorry."

He couldn't help smiling. "How sorry?"

She grinned moving closer to him. She put her lips to his and allowed him to kiss her back this time.

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><p>He couldn't take his lips off of her. Then the button alarm began to sound again. He supposed he had to stop kissing her now. He was surprised 108 minutes had passed. They had spent 108 minutes making out but it didn't feel like long enough.<p>

If Claire planned on doing this every time they were in the hatch Charlie considered he may offer himself up for button duty again soon.

**The End.**


End file.
